Myth Weavers is pleased to announce the Dungeons & Dragons Create a Villain Contest! Members may create a villain using any edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules, and the final entries will be voted on by the community.

First place wins a new copy of the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Players Handbook!

The contest runs from July 1 to July 31, and voting will then run from August 1 through August 7. The winner will be announced on August 8 and contacted via PM. Contest details and directions may be found HERE!

The upgrade was a success! Please let me know in Site Discussion if anything has gone awry!

The Pitch: Good morning, afternoon or evening. A less common game is on offer this day, one which pits you against yourself. As in, I'm asking for applicants to play TWO characters here: one of them a champion of the Forces of Good, a classical hero in the truest sense of the word; and the other a soldier of the Legions of Evil, a true villain with as few redeeming features as inhumanly possible.

Wait, say what? Yep, you heard me. Two characters to a player, one a good guy and one a bad guy, on opposite teams and ultimately desperate to kill each other. Unless they have a shared background it won't be personal, just ideological, but at least one of them WILL die by the campaign's end. So, given that you're probably going to have a favourite character that you won't want to lose and everyone else will probably have one as well, not necessarily on the same side as yours...Ravenloft wins.

Sources Allowed: Effectively mandated are the Book of Exalted Deeds and the Book of Vile Darkness. Having the Ravenloft Player's Handbook would also be quite useful, but it's not necessary. Otherwise, if you have a WOTC-licensed sourcebook,

Yes, you may use Tome of Battle / Magic of Incarnum / the Magic Item Compendium and Spell Compendium.

Setting-specific material is permitted. Ravenloft does pick up outlanders from all realities, you know.

I'm saying no to Dragon or Dungeon Magazine material, including the Dragon Compendium.

Also no to third-party or homebrew material, which eliminates much of what I could throw at you as well when feeling malicious and unprofessional.

Character Creation: Probably the unhappy clincher for many of you.

Starting Level: One

Hit Points: Max at 1st-level. You can roll thereafter or choose the average of your die (2.5 for d4, 3.5 for d6 and so on); and may decide at each level what you will do.

Starting Gold: 400gp. As relatively intelligent or resourceful people, you can also assume to be carrying anything worth 5cp or less, without worrying about weight restriction or putting it down on your inventory [exactly who *buys* a whetstone, anyway?]. No starting magic items, however.

Stats: 40-point buy. You are 'slightly' better than the usual rabble after all. Alternatively, in recognition of Ravenloft being something of a bitch (and myself currently being Chaotic), you can roll your stats in order as 6m1d20+4r2. Because the RNG is your friend. You can switch to point buy if your ability modifier total is below 10. Because I am your friend.

Feats: The character gets one bonus Exalted or Vile feat in addition to any other feats.

Races: If they are native to the Material Plane, go for it. Warforged included.

Traits/Flaws? Maximum two of each. Including Shaky for beatsticks and casters. Because *shrug*.

Optimisation? Beyond the usual building of a non-crap character? If you must. Bearing in mind that the benefits will be relatively slow in coming and will thus give me, I mean the Dark Powers, more time to adapt to them. Never said Ravenloft was fair.

1st-level, really? Yup. On the plus side, I recognise that at this early level, combat is...unpredictable. I will, therefore, be awarding XP consistently (and throughout the game) based both on roleplaying and overcoming challenges using non-combat means. Including avoiding combat or other danger inventively. Equally, this is a campaign that I hope will last several years in-game and will take you towards or to level 20 readily enough.

So let me get this straight... You want me to make two separate 1st-level characters. One of them is Good, with Exalted feats and everything; the other is Evil, with Vile feats and everything. I play both of them at the same time on their opposing sides. And I'm doing this with a bunch of other players who are doing the exact same thing. In Ravenloft of all campaign settings! Answer: Yes.

OK. Where do I sign up?Ideally, here. Applications left in the ad thread will be looked at last. [booming voice] You have been warned!

---Also, if anyone out there is interested in being a co-DM; generating plot, foes, loot and/or maps (especially that last one, because I'm utterly hopeless with maps); then by all means drop me a line. Or a PM, you know, whichever.

Game Description:

Ravenloft is hardly a playground even for the most experienced souls, innocent or corrupt, that dwell therein. The pure of heart struggle to reconcile their noble struggle against the darkness with its own inescapable futility - whilst the black of soul simultaneously covet and dread the great power held by the darklords. These are the immutable truths of the Realms of Dread.

But sometimes the immutable too can change. A power has risen in the Mists, to which even the darklords seem beholden. Still in its infancy, this new breed of Evil is vulnerable and those loyal to the banner of Good prepare to strike before it grows to its unassailable maturity. Which morality shall triumph is a question whose answer is still unknown...

@Firesong: Type restrictions for Rapidstrike can be considered removed. They never made much sense to me anyway.

@Everyone: Owing to the sheer numbers of applicants, I'm closing the ad down early. Please migrate over to the OOC thread for any further questions. Mook_Fodder or I will be happy to help any way we can.